Keller Regional Gifted Center in Mount Greenwood is in a class of its own.

The selective enrollment elementary school, which has 236 students in grades first through eighth, easily recorded the highest PARCC exam scores in all of the Southland, according to data released Monday in the State Board of Education's annual Illinois Report Card.

In fact, only one elementary school in the state — Decatur Classical School in Chicago's West Ridge neighborhood — equaled Keller's 94.7 percent PARCC passing rate.

For the past two years, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, a standardized exam that focuses on problem-solving and critical thinking has been administered annually to elementary school students in third- through eighth-grade. The PARCC exams measure both English language arts/literacy, or ELA, and math.

Only 33.4 percent of students across the state passed the PARCC, according to state data, with a slightly higher percentage passing the reading portion (36.2 percent) than the math (30.5 percent).

Three Southland elementary schools, in addition to Keller, recorded PARCC scores more than twice the state's passing rate — Chippewa Elementary School in Palos Heights (70 percent); Hickory Creek Middle School in Frankfort (68 percent); and Southwest Elementary School in Evergreen Park (68 percent).

"We were very happy with those scores," Palos Heights School District 128 superintendent Dawn Green said, referring to the strong PARCC results at Chippewa Elementary in her district.

Green attributes the school's success to its motivated teaching staff and principal.

"It's a group that is always looking to grow themselves professionally and they just leave no stone unturned in terms of their own professional development and in how they can reach kids better," she said. "There's just a lot of teacher leadership going on [at Chippewa]. I think it all contributes to just a great learning environment for those students."

Palos Heights School District 128, with an overall PARCC passing rate of 58 percent, was one of six Southland districts where more than 50 percent of students passed the combined exams.

The region's other top-scoring elementary school districts included Frankfort School District 157-C (62 percent proficiency); Palos School District 118 (55.5 percent); North Palos School District 117 (54.2 percent); Will County School District 92 (51.6 percent), which serves Lockport and Homer Glen; and Manhattan School District 114 (51.5 percent).

District 128's overall success rests heavily on the strength of its ELA scores, which are the best in the Southland at 69.2 percent proficiency. Its math scores, at 46.9 percent, could use a boost, Green acknowledged.

"If you look at our math scores, they're not so good," she said. "That's an area we know we need to work on."

To increase its students' math competency, the district has doubled the amount of daily time spent on math at its junior high school, from 40 minutes to 80 minutes, and implemented a new math curriculum this year.

"We'll be anxious to see what impact that'll have on the future," Green said.

One district that's already seen significant gains year-to-year is Ford Heights School District 169, where 96 percent of students are eligible to receive free or reduced lunches, according to state data.

District 169, a 449-student, two-school elementary district with more than 99 percent minority enrollment, more than doubled its PARCC scores from last year.

Last year, only 7.3 percent of Ford Heights students passed the combined exams, putting the district dead last in the Southland, according to a Daily Southtown analysis. This year, the district's combined passing rate jumped to 18.8 percent — still well below the state average, but better than 21 other Southland districts.

"We analyzed our previous scores and recognized that we needed to shore up some basic skills," Ford Heights School District 169 superintendent Gregory Jackson said.

As a result, the district "went back to the basics" in reading, writing and mathematics, and restructured some grades so that its strongest teachers would be teaching students at the earliest, foundational levels.

"If students are not reading by third grade," Jackson said, "the chances of them having unsuccessful outcomes is high."

He said he was heartened by his district's turnaround, but stressed that there is still much work to be done.

"Frankly, I'm not satisfied [with the PARCC results], but we were very encouraged," Jackson said. "We're not where we need to be, but we're well on our way to getting where we need to be."

Other Southland districts that saw large year over year PARCC gains include Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood and Indian Springs School District 109 in Justice.

To get a more complete picture of all the school data the Illinois State Report Card offers, including information on school spending, teacher qualifications and racial and economic breakdowns of students and staff, visit www.illinoisreportcard.com.